CHAPTER 8: STUCK

The journey back to the peak of the mountain was easier than coming down with Eunwoo, that’s was a fact I couldn’t deny. Eunwoo got tired quickly and let my down for a while before carrying me again, and in the end I had to walk – but Bin carried me all the way up. I didn’t know what kind of sports he played, but his stamina was amazing. He didn’t even seem tired as we were reaching the peak where to stairs got higher and he had to concentrate on where he placed his steps to prevent falling down like I did earlier the same day.

“Are you alright?” I asked. “I can walk the rest of the way…”

“Don’t pity me”, Bin simply replied. “I’m not tired.”

I snorted. “I didn’t pity you, I just tried to be friendly.”

“Well, don’t. Don’t you remember saying you wouldn’t ever bother me?” he asked.

I felt a wrinkle form between my eyes. Then I realized he was talking about the time we got stuck in the storage room and I had told him I’d stay away from him if he’d behave properly. I sighed. I had been bothering him a lot lately. If he hadn’t had to help me out of the restroom stall, he would be on his way home, not worrying about anything. Now he had to carry me and I was sure he felt worried too – about whether he’d get home today. I pouted and decided to stay silent.

We finally reached the peak of the mountain and saw the guesthouse rise against the sky ahead of us. Earlier it had looked abandoned and almost creepy, but now it looked just welcoming as there were lights in the windows and I could see smoke rising from the chimneys. I couldn’t help but to smile a little bit – we would get help soon!

As we got to the guesthouse’s main door, Bin let me down and tried the door – of course it was locked, as the building wasn’t officially open for visitors currently. He roomed the door frames, looking for a doorbell, but then just decided to knock on the wooden door. After a moment, the same elderly lady from before opened the door with a surprised expression on her face.

“Oh my”, she said. “Why are you still here?”

I bowed and Bin followed after me. “Good evening! The others left without us so we thought we’d come and ask you for help.”

“Would you happen to have a phone?” Bin asked. His soft voice surprised me and I couldn’t stop myself from glancing at him quickly.

“Oh, poor things!” the lady said and opened the door wider. “Of course, come in.”

We got in and took off our shoes, then followed the lady through the hallway into the part of the house that seemed to be her home, and she handed the phone to Bin, who thanked her and immediately tapped in a number and made a call, soon putting the phone down with a frown.

“My dad isn’t answering”, he sighed.

“Let’s try Mr. Song”, I suggested and took the phone from him. I tapped his number in and put the phone on my ear. After a few beeps, he answered the call.

“Hello?” he said.

“Mr. Song!” I burst out. “It’s Ryu Minji. You left without us, me and Bin.”

He was silent for a moment. “I know! I’m so sorry! Mikyung said she had a roll call and everybody was present but at one point Eunwoo noticed you two were missing. Are you alright?”

I sighed. “I went to the restroom during the roll call and got locked in, and Bin found me there. I guess Mikyung had our names checked already so nobody noticed. We’re at the guesthouse right now.”

“Will you be able to get any ride home?” Mr. Song asked.

“I don’t think so.” I heard our teacher let out a deep sigh.

“Ask if you can stay at the guesthouse for the night”, he said. “I will pay for it since I wasn’t careful enough. I will come and get you personally tomorrow.”

I swallowed and glanced at Bin. “A- Alright.”

“I’m very sorry”, Mr. Song apologized for the last time before ending the call.

With a sigh I walked to the lady and handed the phone back to her. “Excuse me… I know the guesthouse is closed right now, but we don’t have any ride home today. Could we please spend the night here?”

The woman’s worried face turned into a warm smile. “Of course. How could I send you away?”

Relieved, I flashed the lady a wide smile and bowed at her. She led us through the big house. Apparently there had been a moisture damage on the house – understandable, as the house was built in a traditional way, out of paper and wood – and that’s why it was under renovation and closed from visitors. She explained that she and her husband lived very peacefully on the mountain as there weren’t too much visitors and even when there were, most of them were elders like themselves. The moisture damage had drained their funds a lot, however, since it had spread to 4 of the 5 rooms they had open for guests. At this moment I already felt an uncomfortable twist in my stomach. Only when she led us to a door on the other side of the building I understood the situation – there was only one room available. I glanced at Bin, who didn’t seem to notice me and had his normal expression on his face – either he was super good at covering his feelings or he really didn’t feel uncomfortable.

“The room has a bathroom in it”, the lady informed us while handing the room’s key to me. She smiled. “I’ll prepare something to eat for you, you must be hungry.”

As we stepped inside the small room and the lady disappeared into the gloomy hallway, Bin closed the door and took a step towards me.

“What did the teacher say?” he asked. “Will he get us a ride home tomorrow?”

Without thinking, I took a step backwards before replying. “Yes. He said he’ll come to get us tomorrow.”

Bin nodded before sitting down on the heated floor. He yawned – he must’ve been tired after carrying me for over an hour, even though he didn’t want to admit it. I followed his lead and sat down too, but on the opposite side of the room. I looked around. The room was completely empty excluding a closet that had the floor mattress and blanket in it. I had slept in this kind of places in Jeju when I was younger. I already knew that the mattress wasn’t very large, and there probably was just one blanket. I felt super nervous thinking about the fact that I’d have to share the bed with Bin. I sighed. I really kept on bothering him.

In a few moments, the lady brought us some food, side dishes and leftovers from our lunch earlier the same day. We thanked him and started to stuff ourselves immediately. It had been over six hours since we last ate something – it was only natural to be hungry. Thinking about it, eating with Bin like this did feel a bit strange. We were just classmates, and not even on very good terms at that. Bin had said it himself, that he disliked me. Yet still we sat there, side by side, eating as much as we could.

I was full before he was and moved further away, feeling awkward just sitting there. I glanced at the ripped sleeves of my shirt and gently rolled one of them up. Under the dirty, ripped fabric there were many small but stinging cuts and scratches that had been bleeding at some point, that I could see from the thin trickles of blood that travelled all the way down my wrists.

“You took the game a little too seriously, huh?” I head Bin’s voice asking me.

I looked at him. “I got these because of my ankle, while rolling down the hill.”

Swallowing a mouthful of food, he nodded. “Alright. Still, it’s caused because you were a little too excited.”

I frowned at him and looked back at my arm. How long would it take for these to heal? Sighing, I glanced at the clock on the room’s wall. It was already getting close to 8pm. My aunt and Eunwoo must have been super worried. Then I realized Minhyuk had probably been waiting for me for an hour already and I let out a frustrated groan.

“What?” Bin asked while finishing his food.

“I promised to see someone today”, I sighed.

“Ah”, Bin nodded, wiping his hands on a napkin. “That 2^nd grader you spend a lot of time with?”

I rested my head against my knees. “Yes. He promised to cook for me…”

“Wow. Are you guys dating?” Bin asked with an extremely bored expression on his face.

I glared at him and slowly got up. “No. I’ll wash up first.” And then I started limping towards the bathroom. As I limped past Bin, he suddenly grabbed my wrist, causing me to let out a surprised yelp. The touch didn’t exactly hurt my scratches, but it didn’t feel very comfortable. I was about to scold him and continue my way until I noticed he was actually rolling up my sleeve and taking a look at the scratches. I blinked my eyes and just stared at him.

“These look pretty painful”, he stated. “I’ll ask the owner lady if she has a first aid kit or something.”

“Okay, if you want”, my answer came out sounding really clumsy and stupid, so I just backed out from his grab and continued limping to the bathroom.

As I locked the door behind me I just stared at myself from the small mirror hanging on top of the sink. My face looked puffy, I had probably hit my face against the ground too. My cheeks had dark patches on them, and I wasn’t sure whether they were bruises or dirt. I sighed and quickly hatched out from my clothes, then turned the shower on and stepped under the warm water. My first reaction was to let out a quiet groan and slap my hand against my mouth. The water made my bloody arms sting so much it felt just as Bin had said just a minute ago – painful. I felt tears forming in my eyes as a natural reaction, but held them in and while biting my lip, tried to proceed on quickly washing myself.

After whining of the stinging from shampoo and soap, I finally got to step out of the shower, watching the dirty water, mixed with sand and blood, whirl down the drain. I sighed and carefully wrapped a towel around my body. I glanced at my dirty, ripped clothes reluctantly. Now that I was finally clean, the idea of wearing these clothes again didn’t sound very tempting. But what could I do – I didn’t have anything else either. I was just about to take off my towel and start dressing up as I heard a knock on the bathroom’s door. I got startled and jumped a little bit, putting too much pressure on my injured ankle. I let out a yelp while trying to hold my towel in place.

“Minji?” I heard Bin’s voice. “Are you alright? I heard that.”

“I’m alright!” I replied quickly. “Why did you knock?”

“Well, I got you– “, he started but quickly corrected his words. “I mean the lady gave you some clean clothes to wear. And the first aid kit, too.”

“Ah, I see”, I said. Why did our conversation sound so awkward? I fixed the towel around me so that it couldn’t fall down and slowly unlocked the door. “Just… give me the clothes.”

As the door was open enough for him to hand the clothes, I quickly stretched my hand out and grabbed the pile. I could see Bin actually standing sideways at the door, making sure he wouldn’t glance at the door even accidentally. Quite mindful of him, I’d say. I closed the door again and quickly went through the clothes; fortunately for me there wasn’t anything too drastic, just a big red t-shirt and black comfy-looking trousers that looked a bit big for me. I dressed up quickly and glanced at myself on the mirror – the clothes were a little big but certainly comfortable. I have to thank the lady later on, I thought in my head.

I got out of the bathroom and almost ran to Bin, who was apparently waiting for me to get out so that he could wash up too.

“Well look at you”, he said. “Old lady’s clothes suit you. You are a country pumpkin, after all.”

I sighed. “Can’t you even try to get along with me while we’re here?”

He shrugged his shoulders and locked himself into the bathroom. I rolled my eyes and limped through the room to the window. Like in almost every traditional house, this one had sliding windows that were made of wood and paper. I slid the window open and got surprised by the fact that it was actually raining. I sniffed the fresh air and looked up at the sky. Behind the rain clouds, I could actually see a beautiful starry sky. I couldn’t help smiling a little bit. In Seoul, the air was never this fresh and you couldn’t see this many stars. This really reminded me of the happy days in Jeju. When I started to get chilly, I closed the window and looked around, noticing the first aid kit on the floor. I limped towards it and sat down, opening the kit and getting some bandaids out of it.

“Aren’t you going to dress the wounds properly?”

I almost jumped into the air. I hadn’t heard Bin getting out of the bathroom. He was standing above me, leaning to the wall, arms crossed on his chest. He must’ve also gotten clean clothes from the lady’s husband as he was wearing a white t-shirt and straight trousers as well – his clothes happened to fit him better than mine, though.

“Don’t worry, they’ll heal anyway. I’ll just put some bandaids on.”

Bin sighed and sat down next to me, grabbing the bandaids from of my hand. “Let me.”

I stared at him with enlarged eyes as he took some disinfectant and ointment from the kit. He grabbed my wrist again, this time not forcefully like before, but gently. He pulled me a little bit closer and as I tried to wiggle further away, tightened his grip on my wrist, flashing me a stale look before pulling me even closer. I swallowed and decided to just let him dress my wounds, whatever the reason for his sudden friendliness was.

“Expect some stinging”, he said as started patting some disinfectant on the cuts. I winced and bit my lip to stop myself from letting out a sound. With my another eye closed I looked at the boy who was focused on the scratches on my skin. After applying some ointment on them, he brought my arm close to his face and gently blew some air onto it. His eyes, that I could barely see from behind of his long eyelashes, had a concentrated look in them as he proceeded to place bandaged onto the bigger cuts before wrapping thin layers of gauze around my arms.

“That should do it”, he stated. “Now you won’t be able to scratch them more.”

“The country pumpkin thanks you”, I said, tilting my head and flashing him an obvious fake smile.

He sighed and looked down. “I guess I’m sorry.”

“You should stop guessing and just be sorry”, I said and pulled my arms back from his hands, crossing them against my chest. “And you should also stop being so mean to people without a reason.”

“Alright, I’m sorry”, he said and looked up at me. “But hey, I suffered a lot because of you today.”

I smirked at him. “Oh, so you did suffer? Your ego is so big you couldn’t admit that earlier.”

He grinned at me stalely and yawned. Even though it wasn’t even that late, I felt the tiredness too. It had been a long day with a lot of surprises and struggling, so it had probably taken a toll on both of us. I felt my ankle aching again and grunted silently as I massaged the ankle carefully.

“Why am I always there when you get hurt?” Bin asked jokingly. “I saved you from the paintball arena, and even earlier today I was there when you fell. Last time it was the elbow in the gym… Anything else?”

I sighed. “I guess it’s because of your influence. You’re dangerous.”

Bin let out a tired chuckle before yawning again. “I guess so. Should we roll out the mattress? I’m tired.”

I felt my eyes travel from his face onto my hands and I let out a nervous cough. I was half expecting, half afraid, that my cheeks would become noticeably red. Sleeping in the same room as Bin made me feel uncontrollably awkward – not to mention the fact there was only one mattress. I wasn't used to sharing a room with anyone. I looked as Bin got up and went to the closet and pulled out the mattress that had been rolled into a big roll, two pillows and a blanket. He quickly spread them onto the floor and in a second he was lying down on his stomach in the middle of the mattress. I stared at him, sitting in my place like a stone. Maybe I could just take the pillow and sleep on the floor instead, it was nice and warm too.

“Aren’t you tired?” Bin asked. His voice had become low-pitched and quiet and he looked at me with half-opened eyes. He looked so sleepy he could fall asleep any moment.

“N- not very”, I managed to say, avoiding his glance. “I usually don’t sleep that much...”

He let out a tired chuckle and rolled onto his side, patting the mattress with his hand. “Just come here.”

I swallowed and still trying to look away from him, slowly crawled closer to the bed. Bin followed me with his eyes and shook his head.

“Are you afraid I’ll try something?” he asked. “Don’t worry, I’ll just sleep right away.”

Then he rolled onto the mattress’ other side, his back facing me, and seemed to find a comfortable spot. He pulled the blanket over his body and judging by his deep breathes, he at least tried to sleep. Slowly I sat onto the mattress and awkwardly laid down, not even bothering to put the blanket over me. I just laid there, on my back, stiff as a stone. It wasn’t that I was afraid that he’d actually try something, but I just felt nervous because of the whole situation – besides, I had never shared a bed with anyone expect my mother. I tried to normalize my breathing so that I wouldn’t let it out that I was super nervous.

Suddenly Bin turned around, so he was lying on his other side again, resting his head on his hand, looking at me. He narrowed his eyes a little bit. I got startled from the sudden action and automatically brought my arms crossed on my chest, almost covering my mouth with the other hand.

“Why are you so nervous?” he asked.

“I’m not nervous”, I replied quietly.

“Oh, alright. You just don’t want to use the blanket, and lay on your back like a stone, just for no reason. Right?” he chuckled, shaking his head a little bit. He moved a little bit closer, trying to look into my eyes. I automatically turned my head away, and immediately cursed myself inside my head. I just had to be so obvious. “See? You can’t even look at me”, he continued.

“It’s not that, I just – “

At that moment he rushed towards me, placing his hands on the mattress on both sides of my head, so that he was hovering just above me, pinning my body down onto the mattress with his own. My eyes enlargened and I suddenly forgot how to breath from the surprise. I could just stare into his eyes that were so close to mine I could almost see his pupils expanding even in the dark room. I could feel his breath on my skin and I could have bet that my heart was beating faster than ever before.

“You are nervous”, he whispered. “I am a guy after all, right?”

At this moment my brain seemed to betray me, and I could just continue staring at him without saying a word. I felt my fists, that were placed on my chest, relax and move down to my sides. I looked at Bin, at his thin yet muscular arms keeping me at my place, at his moist, fluffy hair, at his dark eyes, at his nose, at his lips. At that moment, he looked very handsome. The fresh scent of shampoo and soap lingered in the air. 

“You’re afraid I’ll do something like this, right?” Bin asked quietly.

I opened my mouth to say something snarky but no words came out. Bin smiled at me and got off of me, falling on his back on the mattress. “Don’t worry. I promised to behave, right?”

I could just lay on my back, stare at the ceiling and blink my eyes a few times before I could finally open my mouth. “Y- You have quite an imagination! Anyway, I’m going to sleep now.”

I rolled to my other side, facing the wall, and pulled the blanket over me. I could feel Bin’s body warmth as I lied under the blanket, and I couldn’t keep my eyes closed – I opened them every five seconds, and slowly placed my hand over my chest. My heart was still beating like crazy. I shook my head, trying to think about something else than Bin hovering over me. I didn't like this at all. The way I reacted and lost all control of myself was maddening.

“Sorry”, Bin murmured with a sleepy voice.

“For what?” I asked quickly, not daring to turn around.

“For everything”, he replied. “Just everything. Now I’ll promise to behave for real.”

I closed my eyes. I wanted to make my heartbeat normal and listening to Bin’s low-pitched and raspy voice didn’t help the situation. “Alright, apology accepted. Let’s just sleep now.”

I heard Bin yawn once before his breathing became slow and I was sure he had fallen asleep. I patted my chest, trying to calm down so that I could sleep too. I wished my brain was just confused after the long day and tomorrow I’d feel normal again. I tried to concentrate on my breathing and keep my eyes closed.

At some point it started raining very heavily and the relaxing sound of raindrops hitting against the window and the roof helped me fall asleep.